• Guest, Help The DPF Community Thrive - Join Our Donation Drive Today!

    We're launching a special DPF Donation Drive to ensure our beloved forum continues to flourish. Your support is vital in helping us cover essential server costs and keep our community running smoothly — This is more than just a donation; it's an investment in the future of our community.

    Join us in this crucial drive and let's ensure our forum remains a vibrant and dynamic place for everyone.

    Please visit the DPF Donation Drive Thread for details and instructions on how you can make your donation today!

Disney Auction pins - Do wavey gravels indicate a fake?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Disney Auction pins - Do wavey gravels indicate a fake?
pinnochiolover

pinnochiolover

UK Collector/Trader
Rating - 100%
39   0   0
Messages
897
Location
UK
Hi, I just want to be sure this pin is legitimate before I trade it on. My main concern is about the back of the pin. What jumps out is that the hammers on the back are not in straight lines. Are they always in perfect straight lines, or does this indicate a fake?

DSCF1711.jpg

The pin in question is: 34759: Disney Auctions (P.I.N.S.) - Tinker Bell Wreath, does anyone else have this pin? It would be great to be able to compare the backs, to put my mind at rest, or not! Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
Last edited:
I have heard wavy gavels indicates a fake. What pops out at me is that it looks like the gavels are not evenly spaced from row to row (they look closer together right about the top post and farther apart at the very bottom. Is that an illusion from the picture or do you see that in real life? Uneven spacing would make me very suspicious...
 
Gosh! How did you notice that! Yes I think there is a very small difference in the spacing as you have pointed out.
 
thats one of the things to look for...if its mickey ears...you will see that sum have very nice round ears..and sum are off a little... when the pin is made..The real one....its cut from a sheet. there for the lines are already on and strait. the trouble is when they mold the fakes....its not the same as a cut...and u get the line around the edge sumtimes..and almost always have sum tell sign on the back like you have on that one. even if edge is clean...ears are wrong or sumthing.. the size...shape...and space of back logo..is a real good way to spot the fakes....

sorry about that pin...hope you find another soon. "Its All About The Pins"
 
Thank you, Unibear and KT07 for taking the time to respond. Its always great to have someone else's opinion!

I have returned the pin to the Ebay seller and received a refund. Its started me on a mission though to look at all my DA pins and compare the backs!
 
I believe there may be more than 1 type of wavy gavel pattern, yours being one, and another where the top of each gavel is aligned with the top of the gavels on surrounding sides, but the side of the gavels are not aligned with the ones above and below it. The wavy gavel pattern I speak of appears more "orderly" than yours though. On your pin, there seems to be no alignment going in any direction whatsoever. It's just that I still don't think gavel patterns ultimately conclude that a pin is counterfeit or not =/ There are just so many variations on the entire DA pin run, and their characteristics just kept evolving as they were rolled out continuously.
 
Last edited:
:lol: I don't know. pinocchiolover has already returned the pin, but it would've been great if someone else who has the pin posted a pic of theirs =/
 
pinnochiolover said:
Thank you, Unibear and KT07 for taking the time to respond. Its always great to have someone else's opinion!

I have returned the pin to the Ebay seller and received a refund. Its started me on a mission though to look at all my DA pins and compare the backs!
Click to expand...

oh...no...how did that go...i get scarede when i hear that...i hope you did not find many bad ones...
 
Originally posted by KT07 - oh...no...how did that go...i get scarede when i hear that...i hope you did not find many bad ones...
Click to expand...

Ive got about 50 DA pins which were all acquired over six years ago, they are all in pin bags, I had a look at a few and none had wavey gravels. However, I intend to do a proper check of all of them when I have some time, so see what types of gravels are on them and what the alignment is like. I will post a thread of my findings when I have done it.
 
AAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!! Sorry, but this pin was NOT, repeat NOT, a fake. Take a look around our own site for info, then post opinions. Everyone that replied to this and said it was fake should read

http://disneypinforum.com/showthread.php?5765-Disney-Auction-Masterpiece-Characteristics-Compilation

To top it all off, the pin came on the card guys. I'm not flaming, just annoyed. Pinnochiolover had to go through the trouble of purchasing a pin, calling the seller a fraud, and returning it for lack of research, and the info was only lines above this thread. DA made pins with many backing variations on them for whatever reason. Its a pain in the butt for sure, but not a sign of a fake at all.

Again, sorry for sounding upset... Ya'll are my family and I have some good friends that replied to this post and I'm not trying to give anyone a hard time... It just really bugged me.
 
Last edited:
Hi Geoff, I did actually read that thread and speak to Bricklayer before I returned the above pin. At that time, I asked Bricklayer if the picture of pattern one in his thread was of an authentic pin, because I had noticed the curve in the pattern below the backstamp, but Bricklayer himself could not be certain. So I returned the Tink pin, because it had been bought as a trader, and I did not want to trade it when its origins were uncertain.

A similar situation has arisen again today, as I have received a Disney Auctions pin which comes with original card and bag, from a trusted Ebay seller, and the pin has a small wavey gravel pattern. The pin in question this time is: 31089: Disney Auctions (P.I.N.S.) - Alice and Butterflies. So yet again I find myself questioning this, because of course anyone can put a pin on an original backing card. I know they would have to be lucky enough to come across the right card. But of course its quite normal for a collector to trade for multiples of the same pin, before finding one their happy with. Hence pins can be easily swopped between backing cards.

I am in two minds about this whole business, because all the DS pins I bought back in the day have the larger gravel pattern, its only the DA pins that I have purchased more recently that have had the smaller wavey gravels. Its mind boggling really because the pins themselves have had a glass finish on the surface of the pin. I tend to sway between thinking they are authentic and then some days that their fake! Of course I doubt that we will ever prove this. But as Bricklayer said above it would be great if someone else could post a picture of their pin, if they are certain its legit or of course if the back of their pin looks different.

When I get a mo, I will post a picture of the Alice pin, I am sure there must be a few collectors here who have this pin.
 
Here is my Alice pin, the pictures arent great, as they were taken in evening light. The lines of gravels start to wave below the backstamp, its not so obvious in the picture, but its very obvious when looking at the actual pin.

DSCF2177.jpgDSCF2181.jpg
 
Last edited:
So, there is really no way to tell if a DA pin is fake or not by looking for wavy lines - this is just great! AND, the hologram melted away or fell off? :0(
 
Last edited:
Well, some DA pins didn't even GET holograms to begin with. I think you just need to look for things like color variation, slightly rough edges and other things. :(
 
Ive got the Pinocchio Transformation pin LE100, that pin didnt have a hologram. There was no plate for it on the back of the pin, just a backstamp and the usual gravels. DA had too many variations!
 
pinnochiolover said:
Ive got the Pinocchio Transformation pin LE100, that pin didnt have a hologram. There was no plate for it on the back of the pin, just a backstamp and the usual gravels. DA had too many variations!
Click to expand...

Hah! I used to buy the Protos and special AP pins sets from Disney Auctions. I have over 80 Certificates of Authenticity. Guess what - there are 10 different versions of the certificate, all from DA directly. So...why would we be surprised that the backstamp changed over time -happens with pins quite often. Look at the (poor) quality of some of Disney's newest rack pins -you would be shocked!
 
Tool release after a long period of time, you can create the image, and then cut and paste the code data.
 
TiggerNut said:
Hah! I used to buy the Protos and special AP pins sets from Disney Auctions. I have over 80 Certificates of Authenticity. Guess what - there are 10 different versions of the certificate, all from DA directly. So...why would we be surprised that the backstamp changed over time -happens with pins quite often. Look at the (poor) quality of some of Disney's newest rack pins -you would be shocked!
Click to expand...


+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1

Thank you for pointing that out! I have around 200 auctions pins myself and I have inspected every last one and discussed this phenomena at length with friends. It seems that there are many variations with auctions pins. I compared my pin backings with the age of the pin thanks to pinpics; it seems that the newer the auctions pin, the larger the gavel. The small, wavy gavel patterns are found on some of the early auctions pins. Perhaps they didn't have the method down yet for making good backstamp patterns, or perhaps they didn't care (which given the quality in pins today it totally likely). In any case, the patterns vary greatly and an auctions pin authenticity CANNOT be judged in any way by the backstamp.

I have some pins with backstamps that make the ones on the pin you sent back look straight. Only some pins (some - mot all- 100s and 250s) came with a hologram sticker, but that was a later invention of the company. Many, many auctions pins never had holos to begin with. What you DON'T want is an auctions pin with a small plain metal oval on it where a holo should have been - thats definitely a scrapper. There have been discussions about ebay sellers offering pins in this condition, both failing to omit this fact or outright admitting that the holo is missing; stay away from them.

Overall, to date, there are not that many fakes made of auctions pins. The ones that were made were for pins such as LE 100 masterpiece series, and things worth over $100 a pin. Most common auctions pins were not faked; there may be fakes of around 0.1% of all auctions pins made if that.
 
I might have agreed with Geoff a few years ago, however, if you look on that auction site today, you'll find over 4,000 DA Pins available for sale. This particular Alice DA Pin in this post is a known scrapped pin. I believe it was even in some of the pics posted for sale "Direct from China". We're, unfortunatly, seeing more and more DA Pins being scrapped. I think the .1% is FAR off. And don't go by the backing card either, where do you think these backing cards come from??? CHINA!!! If it's easy to copy a pin don't you think it would be even easier to copy a backing card?? So, I guess the point I'm making is, BUYER BEWARE!!!!
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top